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A couple of pieces of news out of Matchroom Boxing's Eddie Hearn on Friday:• He said he has begun negotiating a deal with Top Rank for Lee.
Abraham's (44-4-KO29) WBO super-middleweight title defence against mandatory challenger Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez (33-0-KO24) will be chief.

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Lee Selby wants Evgeny Gradovich IBF title fight by March

It will not be the first time the two have been in a ring together after previously sparring in Floyd Mayweather's Las Vegas gym.

Selby said: "It [the sparring] was highly competitive, but I'm going into the fight confident."

Australian Brunker is undefeated in his 27 fights, but Selby said the career course he has plotted to this date will stand him in good stead.

"Each fight has been a gradual step up in class and each fighter has been a little bit better than the other.

"Joel Brunker is obviously another step ahead. We must have done about 30 rounds sparring together so I know him pretty well.

"He's a tough, come-forward fighter with knockout power in both hands so it's going to make for a real fight.

"Hopefully I'll come through this fight OK then fight him [Gradovich] before the end of March."

Barry fighter Selby will be in the undercard of London 2012 super-heavyweight gold medallist Anthony Joshua who faces Denis Bakhtov.

This will be the second tim

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Gradovich-Selby in the works

A couple of pieces of news out of Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn on Friday:

• He said he has begun negotiating a deal with Top Rank for Lee Selby’s mandatory shot against featherweight titlist Evgeny Gradovich this spring.

“We have already been in touch with Top Rank to make them an offer for a fight in the U.K. in the spring,” Hearn said. “Either way I expect to confirm the fight in the next few weeks. We are keen to stage the fight here and I'm very confident Lee will become the IBF champion in his next fight.”

Gradovich’s manager, Egis Klimas, previously told ESPN.com that he hoped to make the fight in Gradovich’s native Russia but that they had no problem fighting in the U.K. for the right deal.

Gradovich (19-0-1, 9 KOs) has made four defenses, most recently a draw in November with Puerto Rico’s Jayson Velez in a fight most felt Gradovich won easily. Selby (20-1, 8 KOs), of Wales, stopped Australia’s Joel Brunker in the ninth round in October to become the mandatory challenger.

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Lee Selby wins world title but Kevin Mitchell misses out

Gradovich, who glories in the moniker 'The Russian Mexican', continued to barrel forward in the fourth and continued to be picked off on the counter, although the champion did have a bit more success in the fifth.

But Gradovich, making the fifth defence of his title, was back to chasing shadows in the sixth, during which Selby rocked him with a couple of right crosses and almost took his legs from underneath him with a right over the top.

Selby shipped a couple of rights from the champion in the seventh but also opened up a nasty cut over Gradovich's right eye. And the fight was called off seconds into the eighth, after the doctor deemed him unfit to continue.

Because it was an accidental head-butt the judges were called upon, and they awarded Selby the fight unanimously, 79-73, 80-72, 79-73.

Selby is the third Welshman to win a featherweight world title, after the great Howard Winstone and Steve Robinson, and the 12th Welsh world champion in all.

The former British, European and Commonwealth champion n